We are in the twenty-ninth lesson in the chain of lineage. Today we are learning about the Rebbe Rashab, in the third part. We are in 5664-5665. What is written here in the chain of lineage? He established committees to send matzah to the Jews, the soldiers, in the Far East.
We will tell about this briefly. These years were the years of the war between Japan and Russia. The Rebbe Rashab was engaged in sending matzot to the Jewish soldiers who were at the front in Shanghai, in Dairen, in Harbin. This was in the northeast of China, close to the border with Russia. At that time the Rebbe Rashab was in France. There was a very wealthy Jew there, a philanthropist, a successful businessman, who was called Baron Guenzburg. And even though there were differences of opinion between him and the Rebbe Rashab, because many times the Rashab opposed all the Haskalah studies of the maskilim, which Baron Guenzburg did want, and there were no close relations, nevertheless, the Rebbe Rashab traveled to him, to act upon him so that he would make efforts to obtain a permit to send the matzot to the Jewish soldiers.
It is told that the Baron said to the Rebbe: "The Jews have a solution, there is Pesach Sheni. If we do not succeed now, there is Pesach Sheni." So the Rebbe answered him that at the front there are no barons. At the front there are simple Jews, they do not know clever reasonings, they need matzos for Pesach. And in the end it turned out in such a way that even the Russian government agreed and even helped. The matzos arrived on time, properly, and everything was in a successful manner, and this is what is mentioned here briefly regarding the efforts of the Rebbe Rashab in this matter.
5666 (Taryab-Vav) — what happened in 5666? He was occupied in Petersburg with quelling the pogroms, and he succeeded. A year earlier, in 5665, there was a large assembly of rabbis in Vilna, and the government decreed that rabbis and melamdim would undergo continuing education in secular studies. The Rebbe Rashab was very, very opposed to this, and expressed himself in a very sharp manner. He said: "Come what may, it will not stand and will not come to pass" — he did not allow it. And the government was very angry; they even arrested the Rebbe during that period. The government's response to this was that in the following year, the one being recounted here, 5666, during that winter pogroms broke out against the Jews, because a year earlier there had been a sort of rebellion against the monarchy. And the Rebbe made great efforts regarding this, speaking with the communal activists, to see how to stop these pogroms. The Rebbe traveled at the end of the month of Teves to Vitebsk, to Moscow, to Petersburg, to participate in a secret assembly that was held in Moscow, and he endeavored to quell the pogroms. And it is written here that the Rebbe succeeded in quelling the pogroms.
5667 (1907). What is written here? He drafts a detailed program called "Association of the God-Fearing," and delivers it through Rabbi Breuer and the wise rabbi from among God's poets, our teacher Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim. In that year the Rebbe Rashab was in Germany, in the city of Würzburg, almost the entire year, from Cheshvan until almost Rosh Hashanah, throughout the entire year of 5667. In the middle of the year he came to Lubavitch for just a few weeks and returned there. Why was the Rebbe Rashab there for so long? The official purpose was that the Rebbe Rashab's health was not good, and he had breathing problems, difficulty breathing, so he traveled to Würzburg to visit great professors, to treat this problem. At a certain stage the Rebbe Rayatz joined his father; he too was there with him.
But the Rebbe made use of his stay in Würzburg to work in several areas: to strengthen Judaism in Germany, and then he also met with the two individuals mentioned here, Rabbi Breuer and Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim. Rabbi Breuer was a public activist, an author, and a thinker, a grandson of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, who was a great activist there in Germany, and Rabbi Yaakov Rosenheim was also one of the great activists in Germany, the founder of Agudas Yisroel. And the Rebbe Rashab worked through them to create a program to assist and help the Jews.
5668, he participates in a gathering of communal activists in Germany, in the city of Berlin. Berlin is located in Germany. In that year, at the end of the summer, at the end of the month of Sivan, the Rebbe traveled to Berlin, to a place called Marienbad, again for a medical purpose. He traveled to undergo examinations with several professors, and there were healing springs there which the professors recommended that the Rebbe travel to. When the Rebbe was on his way back to Lubavitch, he stopped along the way in Berlin, and met with the rabbis of Germany, in order to discuss the situation of the Jews in that place. This was in 5668.
In 5669 (1909), at the Kattowitz assembly, he announced that he was leaving Agudas Yisrael. The Rebbe Rashab was initially among the establishers and founders of Agudas Yisrael, but ultimately he withdrew from it, out of concern. He said—and this appears in his letters—that the committee of Agudas Yisrael had joined with the Zionists, and they had no discernment as to whom to admit and whom not to, and he was concerned about the lack of order in the matter, so he announced that he was leaving and withdrawing from it.
In 5671 (1911), he founded the Torat Emet yeshiva in the city of Hebron, may it be built and established. The Rebbe Rashab sent a group of students from the yeshiva in Lubavitch, headed by Rabbi Avelin—they called him Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Avelin. He sent them to found a yeshiva in the spirit of "Tomchei Temimim," and he established it in Hebron. Initially, a group of seven students arrived. Among them were well-known figures such as Rabbi Artur Simchovitch, and there were additional students, Rabbi Yochanan Feigin—seven students who traveled, and with them they took several of the locals, and thus the Torat Emet yeshiva was founded in Hebron. Later it moved to Jerusalem, but its founding is recorded as being in 5671 (1911).
In 5676 (1916), on the 17th of Marcheshvan, he left Lubavitch and moved his residence to the city of Rostov on the Don River. The Rebbe Rashab, during the period of the First World War, when the German army approached Smolensk, which is already close to the region of Lubavitch, decided to leave Lubavitch. Over the years our Rebbeim had been in Lubavitch for more than a hundred years, a hundred and two years, from the Mitteler Rebbe until the Rebbe Rashab who decided to leave Lubavitch. When he was on the road, at first there was still no plan as to where they were going, but a request arrived from the Jewish community in Rostov, which asked that the Rebbe come to them, and all the expenses they would take upon the community's account. The Rebbe accepted their request, and the center of Chabad moved to Rostov.
As is known, in the Rebbe's talks there appears the concept "ten exiles did Lubavitch go into exile," and there is the list of the ten exiles of Lubavitch, to where they went into exile. The first place mentioned is Rostov—it is written Rostov-on-Don. The Don River was one of the very large rivers located in western Russia, and the mouth of the river is near Rostov, which is why Rostov is referred to as being on the Don River.
End of 5672, the founder of the yeshivos in the country of Georgia. Earlier we told that the Rebbe Rashab moved to Rostov. On one hand Rostov was the first exile from Lubavitch, but on the other hand it is noted as the year that the revival of Georgian Jewry began. Rostov, geographically, is located relatively close to Georgia, and in those days there were tens of thousands of Jews in Georgia, but the majority of the masses were not Torah scholars. Even though the Jews of Georgia were greatly distinguished in yiras Shamayim, including the masses, there were not many Torah scholars.
Then a delegation of the community's dignitaries from Georgia came to the Rebbe Rashab in Rostov, and asked him that the Rebbe send them rabbis who would teach the people, and would teach them the Chabad teachings and strengthen Judaism in Georgia. The Rebbe indeed sent the first permanent emissary to Georgia; his name was Rabbi Shmuel Levitin. He traveled to Kutaisi, and there the revival of Georgian Jewry began. As is detailed, he founded the yeshivos in the land of Georgia.
5677. He recounts here: he made efforts and succeeded in having leave granted, in accordance with the law, from army service for two thousand three hundred eighty-two guardians of the sacred watch. The Rebbe had already made efforts prior to this, in the summer of 5676, and undertook an endeavor that all the rabbis, shochtim, bodkim, chazzanim, and so forth, should receive an exemption from army service. And he brought about, for such a large number of over two thousand, that they should have an exemption from army service on account of the spiritual work that they have.
The final point here is the passing of the Rebbe Rashab, which occurred on the night following Shabbat Kodesh Vayikra, the conclusion of the Shabbat of parashat Vayikra. In the early hours of Sunday, the second of Nisan—that is, at the dawn of the 2nd of Nisan in the year 5680—at half past the fourth hour, meaning at half past four in the morning, he passed away. His resting place of honor is in the city of Rostov on the Don River.
The Rebbe Rashab, like the Alter Rebbe, their passing was on Motzaei Shabbat. There is an interesting explanation from the Rebbe that although the Gemara says that if a person passes away on Erev Shabbat it is a good sign for him, and a person who passes away on Motzaei Shabbat it is a bad sign for him, nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe Rashab pass away specifically on Motzaei Shabbat. The Rebbe explains this and says: if you look at the person, what is good for him on a personal level, then a good sign for him is on Friday and not on Motzaei Shabbat. But the nesi'ei Yisrael, what is important to them is to care for Am Yisrael, to care for the klal. And it is known that the passing of a tzaddik brings down a great eit ratzon upon all of Am Yisrael at that time. So they specifically chose that their passing would be on Motzaei Shabbat, when the weekdays begin, when Jews need more empowerment, the "al tira avdi Yaakov." They gave up their personal benefit, the main thing being that there be help and assistance for klal Yisrael. Therefore his passing was specifically on Motzaei Shabbat.
The saying that the Rebbe Rashab spoke before his passing is recorded, the well-known saying: "I am ascending to Heaven, but the writings," meaning the maamarim, "I am leaving with you." That is to say, he placed himself within the writings of his maamarim, through which we are able to receive his light.
And interestingly, something that perhaps not many people know, the Rebbe Rashab was buried in a certain place in the Jewish cemetery, and almost twenty years later he was transferred from his burial place to another location in Rostov. Why? Because the Communist regime wanted to build there and to destroy the entire cemetery. There is an interesting description of how a number of chassidim—their names are recorded—dealt with transferring the holy body of the Rebbe to another location in Rostov, where he is found today; this is the second place, not the original place where he had been. This is the life story of the Rebbe Rashab.